The officials maintained that he had violated protocol and should have returned the remaining doses to the office or thrown them away, the doctor recalled. He also said that one of the officials startled him by questioning the lack of “equity” among those he had vaccinated.
“Are you suggesting that there were too many Indian names in that group?” Dr. Gokal said he asked.
Exactly, he said he was told.
Both the Texas Medical Association and the Harris County Medical Society recently issued a statement of support for physicians like Dr. Gokal who find themselves scrambling “to avoid wasting the vaccine in a punctured vial.”
“It is difficult to understand any justification for charging any well-intentioned physician in this situation with a criminal offense,” the statement said.
This article makes the Dr. seem a hero and the DA scum.
But then it is the ‘New York Times’.
So I shall wait to hear the other side of the story from the DA.
Folks, dont get sick anymore. Take care of yourselves as much as you posibly can.
This is what passes for medicine and healthcare today.
None of it in your best interest. They fire anyone who makes a reasonable judgment call. And I am not for these vaccines, but using them before they expire, it could have been any other time-sensitive medicine and this is what you get.
Do not put your life into bid meds hands unless absolutely necessary. You’ll be damaged/dead and still have to pay a big bill for being damaged/dead.
It’s terrible that this doctor has at least for now, lost his practice over unwritten protocol.
Whatever happened to offering training to someone so that this ‘error’ would not happen again? No second chances, after all his years of education and experience?
Something else may be going on here. Some snippy bureaucrat feeling ignored is most likely the issue.
follow the money
equity
Reminds me of soviet era enforced/forced wastage.
It’s all about control.
This reminds of me of how some cities have inhumane prohibitions against restaurants and grocery stores giving away close-date food or individuals feeding the homeless. If it’s not from their own government (or from a government-approved source), they don’t want it being done. Control freaks.
That’s about on par with throwing away food when needy people are present.
Sounds like a completely reasonable judgment call to not let any vaccine go to waste and allow it to make more people be immune. Isn’t that the point?
I’m at a loss for words.
This is the kind of thing you expect in New York - either under Il Duce in Albany, or the other Il Duce in Gracie Mansion. To have it happen in Houston, TX, is a little man-bites-dog.
One of our county health care officers, not an RN had a no show for a vaccine. No one responded on their on call list when that happened re a no show.
Everyone but she on the staff had the first shot.
She waited until the vaccine was about to expire time wise and had an RN inject her.
Now, she has people saying that she should have thrown the vaccine away.